The present invention relates in general to an electrically powered cutting apparatus, and more particularly to a cast cutter for shearing completely through a multilayer surgical or orthopedic cast without injury to the underlying body portion of the patient.
Numerous cast cutters have been proposed for effecting the safe and non-traumatic removal of a cast from a patient. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,232,733; 2,492,156; 3,103,069; 3,481,036; 3,533,161; 3,973,324 and 4,421,111. To the best of the inventors' knowledge, none of these patented cast cutters or other prior art cast cutters of which the inventors are aware, meet the requirements of an ideal cast cutter as specified below.
An ideal cast cutter must be able to easily cut through a multilayer plaster or fiberglass cast, while insuring that the underlying body portion of the patient, which is often swollen, is not cut or further traumatized during cast removal.
A typical cast often includes a woven cloth wrapping or sleeve that is initially applied to the patient's skin. A cottonlike fibrous layer of padding material is usually applied over the woven cloth sleeve. A wet plaster or uncured fiberglass wrapping is then applied over the fibrous layer, the plaster or fiberglass wrapping eventually hardening to provide a rigid, three layer cast for immobilizing the body portion that it surrounds.
An ideal cast cutter must be able to simultaneously cut completely through the inner woven cloth sleeve, the intermediate fibrous layer of padding material, and the outer rigid plaster or fiberglass layer of the cast. Further, such multilayer cutting must be accomplished while protecting the underlying body portion of the patient. Also, the cast cutter should be relatively quiet in operation, and should not appear threatening to the patient whose cast is being removed. In addition, the cast cutter should be designed for easy manipulation by the user. Finally, the ideal cast cutter should be highly reliable in its operation, reasonable in cost, and relatively simple in structure.